Punch

I loved this movie. "Punch" isn't easy to watch (especially for those of us who live with a teenage daughter of our own!), but it is worth the effort. What an interesting film.

It is well-acted across the board. The dialogue is tight, hard, funny, rude -- and then moving and lovely. (It is worth seeing twice just for Michael Riley's beautiful monologue on how he met Ariel's mother.)

Sonja Bennett is scary as the angry teen protagonist. Utterly unlikable - what a huge risk for a young actress. Bravo to her. Michael Riley is perfect as the Dad. I also loved Marcia Laskowski's performance of Mary - a highly believable, likable, attractive woman somewhere in her thirties. I enjoyed seeing a romantic lead who looked like someone I might actually meet somehwere - someone real. Vincent Gale is - as always - incredible as the complex bartender. And Katherine Kirkpatrick simply rocks as Beth the big boxer. Meredith McGeachie is also impressive as "Julie the Beauty".

It's hard to say more without giving stuff away, which I don't want to do, because I hope that lots of peole get to see this movie.

I really enjoyed this movie. The characters draw you in. I was intrigued from the beginning. The characters are very well written. I was surprised by the complexity of the female characters. Women can be very hard to understand. I loved how complex the female characters were. Especially because they are so rare to see. The daughter is very well written. Julie the Beauty could benefit from more character development. Extremely well acted. KUDOS to all involved. I would have sworn this was written by a female. Excellent. I liked all the female characters and felt the tortured existence of the male "dad" lead. Great flick. Even my non film-minded Pakistani husband enjoyed it.

This film is essentially about the relationship with between a single father and his daughter. But there's a very clunky other element to it - topless female boxing. It's supposed to be a 'hook' to get people to see the film, but frankly it would be much much better left out completely since it just doesn't work alongside the father daughter relationship theme and is a long way past the wrong side of grotesque.

The conflicts and alliances that exist between the father, daughter, father's girlfriend and her sister are portayed effectively, often highlighting the success of calmly resolving an issue instead of being aggressive and violent. The film reminded me of Almodovar's work in its handling of complicated relationships in unique situations, although sometimes I felt it wasn't showing me anything I hadn't seen before (topless female boxing aside).

The acting is excellent, particularly that of Sonja Bennett and Meredith McGeachie who portray their respective characters with complexity and emotion, but without going overboard.

Overall, it's a well constructed film with a lot of issues that walk out of the cinema with you and it's probably a shame that most people won't see it.

It's easy to over-look the real issues in the film Punch when it contains such outrageous plot element as female topless boxing, but that would be a mistake. The film is more about the relationship between father and daughter, about dealing with loss, anger, and reclaiming one's emotional self.

The script is well-written and the performances are real. There is a real risk of it turning into melodrama but director Guy Bennett does a good job preventing that by keeping the characters and situations real.

The film deals with many complex issues but does not ruin it by trying to provide us with answers to everything but simply presents them and leaving the rest to the audience. That takes guts... as it does when one makes a film with female topless boxing and wishes to be taken seriously.

My comment to my wife when we were watching this was: "This looks like a Hal Hartley movie, but everyone is a lot meaner than they usually are in his films."

Punch is an interesting exploration of issues surrounding codependent family relationships, honor, and the exciting word of topless women's boxing.

Early in the film, I found almost all of the characters to be somewhat excessive in their violence, stunted emotions and knee-jerk reactions to the world around them. More depth was revealed toward the end, but in a somewhat heavy-handed way. Despite this, I think Punch offers something a little different than the usual fare, at least for viewers in the U.S. (It is possible that Canadians may be used to slightly more contemplative works.) If you don't mind watching your characters develop all of the way through the film (some of the exposition takes quite a while), or are willing to pass the intervening time watching topless women's boxing, you might find it worthwhile.